Nearly Half of All Cyber Attacks Target Retailers

Nearly Half of All Cyber Attacks Target Retailers

A study has shown that nearly half of all web application cyber-attack campaigns target retail applications.

According to the latest web application attack report by security firm Imperva, the retail sector seems to be the most heavily targeted by this type of attack.

The report was based on the analysis of 99 applications over nine months by the company's Application Defense Centre research team.

The study found that 40% of all SQL injection attacks and 64% of all malicious HTTP traffic campaigns target retail sites.

Amichai Shulman, chief technology officer at Imperva said: "Our study shows that retail sites are a big target for hackers. This is largely due to the data that retail websites store - customer names, addresses, credit card details - which cyber criminals can use and sell in the cyber crime underworld.

"Over the past year we have seen a number of retailers suffer data breaches and I expect this will continue."

Shulman said that according to the previous web application attack report, retail sites suffered twice as many SQL injection attacks in comparison to other industry sectors.

Shulman added: "Given that the study findings have not improved for retailers over the last year, I would say this threat is not showing any signs of diminishing."